Maternal and Paternal Stimulation: Mediators of Parenting Intervention Effects on Preschoolers’ Development in Pakistan

• In Event: 2-120 - Fathers, Family Processes, and Early Child Development: Studies from Lebanon, Pakistan, and Vietnam

Integrative Statement

Parents’ engagement in stimulation – or play, communication, and early learning activities – has been highlighted as one critical manner by which parents promote children’s early development. However, the majority of research has focused on mothers. This study examined mothers’ and fathers’ developmentally stimulating parenting practices as mediators through which an early maternal parenting intervention improved children’s later cognitive and socioemotional development at age 4 years, or two years after the completion of the intervention. The sample comprised of 1,302 children and their families living in rural Pakistan, who participated from birth in a two-year, community-based parenting program that focused on enhancing mothers’ sensitive and responsive caregiving (Yousafzai et al., 2014). Parenting and child development outcomes were repeatedly assessed at birth and when children were 12, 24, and 48 months of age. Maternal and paternal stimulation were both reported by the child’s mother when the child was 12, 24, and 48 months of age. Preschoolers’ cognitive skills were directly assessed using standardized tests and socioemotional development was based on maternal ratings. We used structural equation modeling to simultaneously test the direct and indirect effects of the intervention on each child development outcome via maternal and paternal stimulation. We controlled for child sex, maternal education, paternal education, wealth, number of children in the home, child height-for-age at 24 months, and exposure to nutrition intervention. Our results revealed that both maternal and paternal stimulation significantly mediated intervention effects on children’s longer-term cognitive and socioemotional development (see Figure 1). Greater indirect effects were found through maternal than paternal stimulation. Additionally, more stimulation by one parent positively predicted later changes in his or her partner’s stimulation. Implications for targeting both mothers’ and fathers’ parenting behaviors in early childhood interventions and further unpacking these interdependent parenting processes will be discussed.

Authors

• Joshua Jeong, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health
  Presenting Author

• Jelena Obradovic, Stanford University
  Non-Presenting Author

• Muneera Rasheed, Aga Khan University
  Non-Presenting Author

• Dana McCoy, Harvard Graduate School of Education
  Non-Presenting Author

• Gunther Fink, Swiss Tropical and Public Health Institute
  Non-Presenting Author

• Aisha Yousafzai, Harvard University
  Non-Presenting Author